The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis device having an endoscope which is inserted into a body cavity.
An ultrasonic wave transmission/reception scanner of this type must be in tight contact with the wall of the body cavity which is scanned with the ultrasonic wave during a diagnosis. As shown in FIG. 1, an ultrasonic transmission/reception section 2 at the distal end of an insertion section 1 is surrounded by an inflatable balloon 3 which is filled with an ultrasonic wave propagation liquid medium. The ballon 3 is inflated and brought into contact with the wall of the body cavity to transmit the ultrasonic wave. However, in addition to the ultrasonic wave transmission/reception section 2, an observation optical system 4 is also mounted at the distal end of the insertion section 1. When the balloon 3 comes in tight contact with the wall of the body cavity, the observation optical system 4 may come closer to the wall or may come in tight contact with the wall, thus impairing observation.
In order to eliminate the above drawback, a link mechanism is used to arrange the ultrasonic wave transmission/reception section 2 to be movable parallel to the observation optical system 4. While ultrasonic wave diagnosis is performed, only the ultrasonic transmission/reception section 2 is extended parallel to the observation optical system 4 and is then brought into tight contact with the wall of the body cavity. Then, the field of sight is assured since the observation optical system 4 is sufficiently apart from the wall. However, a mechanism for moving the ultrasonic wave transmission/reception section 2 becomes complex and the distal end portion of the insertion section becomes large, resulting in high cost. Further, operability of the device is degraded.